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JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2003
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WAS JESUS A YOGI?
here is a keen interest of tension, others see it as a form of exercise promoting fitness, and some have claimed cures from in yoga the world over, even among Christians. To some, it is a means of relaxation and easing serious medical conditions. But yoga is primarily a spiritual discipline, and there are Christians who promote yoga as a help to meditation and prayer. There is much confusion in the mind of the average Catholic – lay and cleric – because yoga as promoted among Catholics is neither entirely a health discipline nor entirely a spir- itual discipline, but sometimes one, sometimes the other, and often a mixture of both. One well-known proponent of yoga has been quoted as saying that Jesus was a yogi. And presentations of Jesus in yogic postures of meditation are becoming more common, even in the rooms of some priests. It is in this regard, particularly, that the sincere Chris- tian should enquire into yoga’s compatibility with Christian spirituality, and the wisdom of incorporating its techniques into Christian prayer and meditation. What is yoga? Derived from a word meaning to yoke or unite, it is a spiritual discipline aimed at enabling the practitioner to attain liberation from the human condition and realise his/her own divinity (see box on page 2). As we look into the meaning and significance of the discipline of yoga as presented by persons whose own background and spirituality is Hindu, we encounter a reality disturbingly different from the innocuous “re-
laxing and breathing exercises” presented to us by Catholic promoters of yoga – some of whom, unfortu- nately, are priests. Examples of these follow: ‘The absolute is within oneself,’ declares the Chandogya Upanishad, ‘Tat tvam asi’ or ‘Thou art That’. The Divine dwells within each one of us through his microcosmic representative, the individual self or jiva. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna describes the jiva as ‘My own eternal portion.’” (“Gain the Self, Lose the I” The Speaking Tree, 18-08-2002).